Islamic militants test Lebanon's weak military force

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The Lebanese army's fight against al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants in northern Lebanon marks the first real combat test for the country's weak military in nearly two decades.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The Lebanese army's fight against al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants in northern Lebanon marks the first real combat test for the country's weak military in nearly two decades.

Hundreds of army troops are poised to storm the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp if the fighters of the Fatah al Islam group barricaded inside do not surrender. The army, which already is stretched thin trying to secure Lebanon's borders with Israel and Syria and to keep peace between pro- and anti-government factions in Beirut, sought international aid last week.

Help was quick to come. The U.S. and Arab allies rushed military supplies in nine transport planes, including four from the U.S. Air Force, just four days after the army engaged hundreds of Fatah al Islam militants with artillery and tank fire.

That was a sharp turnaround from the trickle of supplies in recent years while Syria dominated Lebanon and its army.

The army clashed with the Islamic fighters yesterday, breaking a weeklong truce. Lebanon's government said it's determined to defeat the militants but remains willing to give mediation a chance.

Lebanese army artillery pounded positions on the northern edge of the camp and near the Mediterranean coastline, apparently trying to prevent any militants from fleeing, reporters at the scene said. One rocket apparently fired by the Fatah al Islam militants started a fire on the edge of the camp.

Thirty-one soldiers, 20 civilians and up to 60 militants have died since May 20 in one of the few battles the army has fought in years. It's the troops' biggest fight since 1991, when the army forced Palestinian guerrillas into the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in the country's south.

"We cannot compromise on the issue of terrorism," he said before the renewed fighting.

Lebanon's army, with only 220 battle tanks and no effective air force, has been one of the weakest militaries among Arab states, with some of the private armies run by the country's political and religious factions better armed and trained.

Keeping the army weak was a tactic to prevent it from being used by one faction against the other, as happened during the 1975-90 civil war, and to keep it under control of civilian leaders.

Long dismissed as better suited for parades than battle, the army has had no major combat with Israel since the 1948 creation of the Jewish state. Lebanese forces stayed out of the 1967 and 1973 Middle East wars.

In 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon to crush Palestinian guerrillas, Lebanese troops stood by. The Israelis, however, have sometimes attacked the army during their forays into Lebanon. Thirty-seven soldiers were killed in last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militia.

Now the army is an all-volunteer force of 56,000. With Lebanon buffeted by political infighting and violence, it has became the last defense against the country disintegrating after Syrian troops -- which entered Lebanon in 1976 as supposed peacekeepers -- withdrew under international pressure in 2005 following the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Lebanese troops have remained neutral in the political upheaval between the pro-Syrian opposition and the Western-backed government. Army units, rather than crush anti-government protests, helped protect and separate the rivals. Troops imposed a curfew in January to quell Shiite-Sunni clashes that killed 11 people.

The standoff at Nahr el-Bared has raised fears of more violence across Lebanon, which has 12 Palestinian refugee camps where militant movements are rampant.

After the Israel-Hezbollah war last summer, the army was encouraged to move deep into Lebanon's south for the first time in nearly 30 years. It now has 16,000 troops in southern Lebanon along with a U.N. peacekeeping force, and 8,000 soldiers along Syria's border to guard against illegal-arms shipments.

After last summer's battles, the United States decided to increase military aid to Lebanon to $40 million annually. Humvees and ammunition began to arrive.

Washington might hope that a strong military could eventually disarm Hezbollah, but the army is unlikely to take on the thousands of well-armed, experienced Shiite guerrillas soon. Hezbollah also is a political force in Lebanon and has coordinated with the army in its fight against Israel.

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